THE FINANCIER
related to motives. So long as he was free and clear of
any legal complicity, any intention to defraud, what did
it concern him where his customers came from, who they
were, or how they obtained their money?
The air, at this time, was redolent of speculation. The
exuberance of the average American in regard to the
future of the United States made him sanguine, dramatic,
almost dangerous. " This political world is a great world,"
Cowperwood said to himself. " These fellows have access
to ready money. I must go slow; but I can go slow, and
they will make me rich." He journeyed to Mr. Stener's
office and was introduced to him at once. He looked at
the peculiarly shambling, heavy-cheeked, middle-class
man before him without either interest or sympathy,
and realized at once that he had a financial baby to deal
with. Stener knew nothing. If he could act as adviser
to this man—be his sole counsel for four years!
"How do you do, Mr. Stener?" he said, in his soft, in-
gratiating voice, as the latter held out his hand. "I
am glad to meet you. I have heard of you before, of
course."
Mr. Stener was not long in explaining to Mr. Cowper-
wood just what his difficulty was. He went at it in a
club-footed fashion, stumbling through the difficulties
of the situation he was to meet.
" The main thing is to make these certificates sell at
par. I can issue them in any sized lots you like, and as
often as you like. I want to get enough now to dear
away two hundred thousand dollars' worth of the out-
standing warrants, and as much more as I can get
later."
Cowperwood felt like a physician feeling a patient's
pulse—a patient who is not really sick at all, but the
reassurance of whom would mean a fat fee for him. The
abstrusities of the stock exchange were as his A B C's
to him. He knew if he could have this loan put in his
hands—all of it; if he could have it kept dark that he was
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